Baron Knoxburry » mp3

Trying out bitbin

b-knox — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:22:32 +0000

Kind of like pastebin, but more for tracking ideas in a rough chiptune format, bitbin is a cool little browser app created by coda. If you are not familiar with trackers you might want to skip it. Currently, it’s ideal for jotting down melodies, rhythms or songs just a few bars in length. You could go into the source and extend the pattern length, but I haven’t tried that. There is only the one pattern per song with 128 rows. Click the ‘Upload!’ button to get a unique URL so you can share your work.

here’s my silly track
Download audio file (b-knox-good-job.mp3)

EDIT – people seem to have problems running bitbin in older and crappy browsers. I suggest the latest version of chrome for anything you do on teh interwebs. :D/

Between Roiners – my new ep

b-knox — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:14:11 +0000

Whulp, I’ve been busy again. After a nice vacation in California with my parents to visit my grandfather and sister, I came home to a request for betamod a release. I said, “Why not?” I used all my spare time for a week to compose a hundfull of originals, touching up a few OHB tracks; presenting to you all . . .

DOWNLOAD FOR FREE HERE (link on page reads “ZIP FILE”)

. . . or preview a track here —
bediddle stump thrusters by Baron Knoxburry

“Between Roiners” was made possibly by a short stack of circumstances. The biggest being the recent notion : “b-knox must be prolific.” If I want to be playing more gigs then I need more people to hear the music. I’m a smart beard. I can do this. Pacing. It will require pacing; bouncing away from web development more often.

I’d like to be a musical asset rather than another hungry mouth.

Mad props go out to Tony Gallo who runs betamod, writes teh random melancholy text for each release, and invited yours-truly to join his roster at the right time. Check out his video, though I’m not sure that’s him, it is cute as shit! Now, if I could catchup and honor the four or so other netlabels that have asked over the last two years. If anyone wants to float me some cash then check out my previous release – Nova Plain, Slopped, and Salted from 2009. zOMG. I have work to do! ^___^;

FAWM – first two tracks

b-knox — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 05:58:55 +0000

February Album Writing Month is hosted by FAWM.org and a wonderful waste of time! So, let’s see if I can get caught up. The goal is 14 songs averaging 3 minutes in length. That’s a 42 minute album. Not bad. I have two tracks and 16 days to go.

My first attempt at writing a ‘song’ was more of an exploration of my “studio”. I’ve decided, for this project, that I would multitrack everything and try to keep it as live as possible. I had a lot of fun with the circuit bent drum machine that Toast is letting me borrow. Things eventually get rather noisy. This track will probably be the last track on the album, so you don’t have to listen to all four minutes if you don’t want to.

Download audio file (b-knox-winter-creep.mp3)

Next, I took a stab at something with pep and vocals, Wizard Strike. I need a Radio Shack so I can stock up on cable adapters. Getting the VIC20 to run parallel delay stomp pedals quickly became quite a puzzle without them. And then I wrote lyrics. This song is less than two minutes. I better watch the lengths! :o

Download audio file (b-knox-wizard-strike.mp3)

ICOM Track : b-knox – wit acher

b-knox — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 01:59:33 +0000

Today! I had the time to participate in the biweekly Iron Chef of Music two hour one sample remix exhibition. The last time I participated the sample was a recording of a dot matrix printer printing. This time? Roger Whittaker’s “Mexican Whistler” oh yeah.

Download audio file (baron-knoxburry-wit-acher.mp3)

track download

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Weekly Beat #03 120bpm marching snares – in loving Memory of Memorial Day

b-knox — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:27:05 +0000

Memorial Day was eleven days ago. The dead military people of America inspire us to think of battle as we attack and devour both the goods and spoils of BBQ’s everywhere. And what do zombie soldiers like more than anything else? That’s right! Marching snare drums.

So I pooped open Renoise and went to work with eight marching snare samples I discovered in my archive. I used a lot of track DSP’s to get a thick, rich movie sound. March, BBQ zombie soldiers, march!

Download audio file (marching-snare-drums.mp3)

b-knox weekly beat 03 120bpm.zip
6.4mb :: contains .wav .mp3 and renoise source

Expert Bit Twiddlers : 8bit Aphex Twin tribute compilation released

b-knox — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:12:35 +0000

Every once and a while I search ‘knoxburry’ in soulseek to see how accessible I am in that network. I was pleasantly surprised to see my track from this compilation show up! It meant that it was finally released!!

The official release page is here. But I found spam on forums first when googling for the damn thing. We’ve got some reviews on WATMM and xltronic and overall they are positive. I’ve known for a long time that IDM/breakcore enthusiasts often don’t enjoy chipmusic even though there are many artists who jump back and forth between these mediums.

My track is ‘alberto balsalm’ and I am not totally satisfied with my effort. There is a section of the song I just could not get the chords right no matter what I tried. But that’s ok, I suppose. I did my best to catch the essence of the song and the rhythm is spot on. I substituted the wooden chair squeak with the Legend of Zelda’s “the dungeon boss is in the next room” sound.

Download audio file (Baron-Knoxburry-Alberto-Balsalm.mp3)

Here are a couple things said at WATMM —

Yeah, somebody said they didn’t like the Alberto Basalm but that’s one of my favorites because it’s so fucked up and authentic. I hate how most 8-Bit is “simulated” and then what’s the point? You’re not fooling anyone because you’re doing things that exceed the capacities of a SID chip. You have to admit that the percussion breakdown is the tits because it’s so metapharstic. But that huge, blat of a minor chord does not belong at all lol–makes it sound like Castlevania

I disagree. Doesn’t matter if it exceeds the capacity of an SID chip. Its all about the sound that it produces. I have no interest in what hardware/software they’re using. Its all about that squarewave sound :spiteful:

And, so, you can see that these Aphex Twin fans don’t know the difference between the Commodore 64 SID chip and an NES with a VRC6 expansion (what I used). Of course you can’t expect people who are :spiteful: against simple square waves to know the difference. Comments on chiptune forums like chipmusic.org and 8bitcollective.com don’t even touch what systems or methods were used. What I don’t get is why Aphex Twin lovers won’t allow themselves to enjoy such a tribute with his early history of frankenstein hardware. How is programming antique hardware that different?

Much respect to Emar for organizing and hosting this compilation!

Download 126mb .ZIP here

Weekly Beat #02 – free tempo

b-knox — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:50:17 +0000

I’m only 4 days late here — H00RAYZ!! My head is spinning.

So, this time around I’m going to include something I have been working with – SoundManager 2, a javascript library. Namely, the MPC demo. Basically, SoundManager hides a Flash movie that dynamically integrates with javascript to load and trigger MP3 files.

Yeah, mash that keyboard. I’m not a huge fan of the kit they use but I’m even less a fan of how coordinated my fingers are. Hopefully this is my worst loop ever because it’s not even loopable! :D

Download audio file (b-knox-weekly-beat-02-free-tempo.mp3)

Weekly Beat #01 – 120 bpm 808 swing beat

b-knox — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:36:23 +0000

A week is too short! ^__^;

This week I resolved to get this done as quickly as possible and still keep it interesting. Oh whatever should I do? I whipped open my Renoise and the included 808 drumkit.

I decided to do something with a lot of bounce. Shuffle, skip and swing are all adjectives used to describe this type of rhythm. It’s applied in all sorts of genres including jazz and psychobilly.

Pictured at right is the beginning of my pattern data. In the Master column you see an alternating effect command. F2xx sets the Ticks Per Beat. Now the pattern rhythmically swings. I wrote 8 quick measures and applied a little distortion for teh funs. \:D/

Download audio file (b-knox-weekly-beat-01-120bpm.mp3)

b-knox-weekly-beat-01-120bpm.zip
zip includes .wav .mp3 and Renoise source

Weekly Beat #00 – 90bpm

b-knox — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:49:08 +0000

Alright, I’m gonna try sumptin’ out here, alright? Inspired by drummist Ryan Gruss’s blog, I will do my utter mostest to get a drumloop posted on every Monday from now until epic miserable fail. That’s a promise! :D/

So, for this, the first installment, I did what I will probably do every time, what came naturally. Au, so naturale! I busted out famitracker and did a slightly downtempo/hip-hop beat at 90bpm. If you open the .ftm source file you’ll see I worked at 180bpm. When using a tracker, doubling your tempo is the difference between 16th notes and 32nds. You thus get twice the rhythmic detail to work with. Quadruple your tempo and your work resolves around 64ths. You get the idea…

I’ve been doubling my snares with a clap lately and this loop is no exception. I used only the NES’s noise and dpcm channels. I made a pitch swishy noise snare and put a 909 clap along it’s side. Maybe next time I’ll try to create a clap sound with noise… the possibilities are endless!! This is chiptune, galldurnit!!

Download audio file (b-knox-weekly-beat-00-90bpm.mp3)

download b-knox weekly beat #00 – 90bpm
includes .ftm .nsf .mp3 .wav files

Nova Plain, Slopped & Salted

b-knox — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:14:26 +0000

Officially released in it’s physical form at Ann Arbor’s Blind Pig on December 16th 2009. This album was a result of the 30 Songs in 30 Days challenge. While some tracks feel like doodles, there are quite a few gems in here. Check them out. If you like them then support!

Download audio file (02-ride-em-down.mp3)

Download audio file (18-do-the-mangut.mp3)

Download audio file (22-broom-broom.mp3)

$5 for physical disc or downloads!

Preview Album and/or buy audio files at bandcamp.

Order physical CD through Firteen Media.